Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota has been amazing over the past several months. She’s done what reporters almost never do when it comes to the heated controversy over vaccines and autism—she’s given us BOTH SIDES.

I used to think that was to be expected when someone in the press covered a controversy, Sadly, it’s not usually done when the issue is DO VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM? Too many reporters assume health officials can be trusted to honestly present the science on vaccine safety and that they’ve got all the studies on their side. Most of the time, they refuse to talk to experts who question the claims of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They ignore any scientist whose work raises serious concerns about the safety of vaccines. And they love to dismiss everyone in the autism community with the trite phrase, “Some parents believe vaccines cause autism but numerous studies show no link.” Reporters who do these things are taking the easy way out. They avoid the real work of honestly researching this issue.

Alisyn is the exception. She’s given us thorough coverage of the vaccine controversy. I dare any reporter who thinks they’ve covered this issue to compare their work with hers. And it’s not just one time, but seven recent reports that I’ve found and I’m quite sure she’ll be doing more of the same.

These are the stories she’s done. These are the comments she’s made and these are the questions she’s asked.

Alisyn focused on the Hannah Poling settlement. She called it “groundbreaking.” “Finally a court has said yes, there is a connection between this vaccine and autism.”She had Dr. Manny Alvarez, a senior managing editor at Fox News, as a guest. He’s also the father of a son with autism. Alvarez talked about the fact that “this little girl did receive at a single sitting multiple, multiple types of vaccinations.” He pointed out that she has an “underlying mitochondrial disease” and he noted that it’s “a genetic disease that got exacerbated by the vaccines.”

Alisyn: “Nobody knows how many other kids have that underlying mitochondrial …”

Alvarez: “That is true. It goes into the fundamentals. Autism for a lot of parents, they sometimes don’t even know when it comes on. Was it right from the beginning? My son has autism. I got suspicious at the age of two but prior to that, when he was a year old, you know, he acted like a normal baby. This is important. I think this is going to bring out a lot of interest because perhaps this is going to create scenarios where now we have to test children a little more careful before we start giving them so many vaccines or exposing them to some types of diets. . . .

“The funny thing is, no one is saying that vaccines really created autism, so it’s ….”

Alisyn: “They use this very fishy legal language: It didn’t cause it, it resulted in it.”

Alvarez: “That’s exactly right because they don’t want an avalanche of other people …and many, many cases have been dismissed, by the way, by parents who’ve sued the pharmaceutical industry and they’ve gotten nowhere.”

Alisyn: “We’ll see if this sets a precedent.”

While one would expect that Manny Alvarez would advocate for testing autistic kids to see how many have the same condition that Hannah Poling does, he doesn’t.

While Alisyn called this hair-splitting “fishy legal language,” Alvarez was more concerned that “an avalanche of other people” might do what Hannah Poling’s parents did and sue over vaccine damage.

Alisyn returned to the Hannah Poling case and asked about the strange finding that vaccines “didn’t cause [Hannah’s] autism, but resulted in it.” She noted that there are 4,800 cases pending in federal Vaccine Court. She found a real life autism parent, the wonderful Becky Estepp. She introduced Becky as a mom who claims that her son got autism as a result of the vaccines he received. She said Becky has spent 10 years researching this and she noted that there are a number of families who were also able to receive federal court settlements for vaccine damage as long as they didn’t use the word AUTISM when making their claim.

Becky stated that as long as parents use terms like encephalopathy or seizure disorder, but not autism, they could qualify for compensation.

Becky stated that the whole vaccine injury compensation program is “federal attorneys defending a federal program using federal funded science …We don’t have a jury. We don’t have regular rules of evidence. And it ended up being a court that really the kids had no chance in.”

Next Alisyn had Dr. Marc Siegel on.

Alisyn: “CBS News just did an investigation … that found that parents who used the words ‘encephalopathy’ or ‘brain damage’ won their cases. Those who had the same symptoms, but used the word ‘autism,’ did not win their cases. There were 1,300 awards to families …again with brain damage. Obviously, it sounds like the Department of Health and Human Services is fudging something. They’re playing a semantics game here. Why?”

Siegel: “Because autism is such a politically charged word. We don’t really know the cause is but multiple studies have shown, and there was just one recently released in the New England Journal of Medicine, a big study of a thousand kids that did not show a link between vaccines and autism. We continue to study that. A lot of attention has been put on that. The question of thimerosal as a derivative, that’s actually been removed from the MMR vaccine…. There has been no proof shown.”

Siegel then told us how many kids’ lives have been saved by the MMR vaccine.

Becky Estepp returned to inform Dr. Siegel that THE MMR VACCINE IS A LIVE VIRUS VACCINE AND COULDN’T POSSIBLY CONTAIN SOMETHING AS DEADLY AS MERCURY. She pointed out that her son had numerous vaccines that contained 25 mcg of mercury and that he received 40 to 50 times EPA standards for mercury exposure.

Becky raised concerns over the study cited by Siegel. She noted that the study seemed to show that thimerosal, which is half mercury, had a “neuro protective effect on the children, which to me seems amazing, it’s neurotoxin. It’s the second most toxic substance on earth.”

Siegel: “Last point I want to make, more study needs to be done. Even if an association is made, that’s not proof.”

Here Alisyn talked about Hannah Poling’s case yet again and what it means for the thousands of other parents who have filed suit in Vaccine Court. At the same time Hannah Poling’s compensation for vaccine-induced autism was announced, the Vaccine Court sent letters to the 5,000 parents with pending cases saying, ‘The three special masters assigned to hear the test cases ruled that there is no reliable evidence that vaccines caused ASDs The courts that heard the appeals in the test cases all agreed with the special masters that there was no reliable evidence supporting vaccine causation.’

It’s hard to imagine a more irrational position than for the government to tell parents that their claims were invalid because there’s no proof of a vaccine-autism link at the very moment Hannah Poling gets millions in compensation because the government conceded that nine vaccinations at one time caused her to regress into autism.

Alisyn then brought on legal expert Mary Holland, who teaches at NYU Law School. She talked about what parents are up against in Vaccine Court much like Becky Estepp did. “We don’t think that that process is fair. This is not a normal court. There is no normal judge. There’s no normal jury. There’s no rules of evidence. There’s no rules of civil procedure. It was set up to be an administrative proceeding and it now tries to function like a court.”

Next Mary Holland brought up the fact that officials now recognize that there are environmental triggers behind the explosion in autism. “This story is not over. The science is going forward and I believe at the end of the day, we will look back at this proceeding in shame. And we will say that this was an opportunity to get at the truth and to find the real issues and we didn’t do it. It was not a fair trial.”

Incredibly, Alisyn wasn’t ready to move on from the subject of vaccines and autism. In her next interview, she led off with the question: “Is there a connection between vaccines and autism? Thousands of families with autistic kids think there is. But the Centers for Disease Control has always maintained that no research supports a link. Now one famous pediatrician has written a book saying the government’s research is woefully inadequate.” Dr. Bob Sears was then given a chance to express his views on the safety of the vaccine schedule.

Alisyn: “Has the government ever studied the amount of vaccines that all of our kids get in one sitting? You get measles, mumps, rubella. Sometimes that’s coupled with even other vaccines. Have they looked at the whole picture?”

Sears: “Usually, simultaneous vaccination has not been completely studied for safety. And that’s what we’re worried about. Babies get as many as six or sometimes seven vaccines together and the CDC is admitting that they don’t always research them that way. One prime example is the flu vaccine. …It seems safe when it’s given alone, but the CDC has never researched the flu vaccine when you give it in conjunction with all the other infant shots.”

Alisyn then showed the recommended vaccination schedule and she asked, “Why isn’t the CDC looking at these combinations?”

Sears: “The CDC is just assuming they’re safe.”

Sears isn’t convinced. He stated that he never gives more than two vaccines in one visit. He added, “Twenty, thirty years ago, we only gave babies two vaccines at a time with a total of eight injections throughout their childhood. Now we give babies six or seven vaccines each time and over 50 injections spread throughout their childhood.”

Then Sears challenged the CDC’s defense of the vaccination schedule. “When you inject germs directly into the body, you bypass the immune system completely … It’s a very unnatural type of germ exposure.”

Amazingly, Alisyn then brought up the Danish studies that supposedly show it’s safe to inject mercury into babies and announced, “Now the lead investigator is being investigated. Why?”

Sears: “He was kind of double-dipping… He was taking money from the CDC to do his research. He was also under salary from the Danish University to do his research and that was against his contract. Now, according to Danish newspapers, he’s skipped town with two million dollars in Danish research money, so it calls into question the validity of his research.”

Alisyn ended by reminding parents that they can ask to spread their children’s vaccinations out “and perhaps that would make it safer.”

Here Alisyn told about the whooping cough outbreak in California that’s led to recommendations for booster shots for all seventh to twelfth graders. She brought on two people with opposite views on this shot, a mother who planned to exempt her child and Dr. Marc Siegel once again. The mother, Moira Giammatteo, told about her son’s bad reaction to his DPT shots which preceded his regression into autism. She plans not to have her daughter vaccinated. And she told parents how they can exercise their philosophical exemption to the vaccine.

Siegel came on to tell us how he believes in a mother’s intuition, “A mother knows their children better than any scientist and any doctor. She’s totally entitled to this belief.”Then Siegel called for other environmental research because vaccines have been “studied and studied and studied.” He also warned that we need herd immunity. And strangely after he dismissed a vaccine link, he said, “There may be some people who may be more susceptible or vaccines don’t work for them. …The science isn’t there yet. We need more genetic understanding to know who tolerates vaccines and who doesn’t."

While Siegel told us we need mass vaccinations for herd immunity, Moira said, “I just don’t want my son to be collateral damage.”

In December, Alisyn weighed in on the controversy over the SafeMinds PSA scheduled to be run in a number of movie theaters. The short PSA was intended to alert the public to the presence of mercury in many of the flu vaccines available. It urged them to ask for a mercury-free shot. Alisyn let Lyn Redwood explain what the PSA was all about, something I did not see from any other media source that covered this issue.

Finally, this week Alisyn again covered autism—this time in an interview with Temple Grandin, an accomplished autistic adult and author who’s been the subject of a recent popular movie. Grandin was featured as an advocate for children with autism who may lose needed services in our tight economy. Alisyn focused on the increase in autism asking Grandin, “Are there more children suffering from autism or are they being over-diagnosed?” Grandin talked about the spectrum and the real increase in children on the severe end.

Alisyn: “You know there’s lots of controversy about vaccines and autism—whether or not childhood vaccines actually are the catalyst to autism developing. Where do you stand on that?"

Grandin: “I think there is a broader thing with environmental insults interacting with genetics. There’s that new UC Davis study where being next to a highway… and people being next to a plastics factory and things like this …

Something in the environment interacts with genetics.”

--

Alisyn Camerota, mother of three young children, knows vaccine safety is a major concern for parents. She’s not willing to give us the standard message that autism is some genetic mystery that scientists are working on. She isn’t satisfied to give health officials a free ride by just accepting the claim that there is no link between their ever-increasing vaccination schedule and the epidemic increase in autism. For anyone in the media to give this kind of attention to autism clearly shows she’s aware that this is a health care emergency. The issue is never going to go away no matter how often the standard denials and dismissals are given to the public.

Members of the media don’t seem to get this. I’ve had reporters tell me that they would like to do more on autism, but they weren’t allowed to. One said his editor had “autism fatigue” because they’d already done two autism stories that month. A reporter who did a poor job covering a new book about autism, wrote to say he only had a half hour to look over the book before writing his review. Others have thanked me for the information and contacts that I sent and they assured me that they’ll save it, “in case I ever write on this topic again.”

It’s easy to give us Manny Avarez and Marc Siegel and let them tell people that vaccines save lives and officials are sure they don’t cause autism. It’s another thing to find people like Becky Estepp, Bob Sears, and Mary Holland who raise serious concerns that the issue isn’t settled. That’s real journalism. Alisyn Camerota is dedicated, courageous, and honest. I wish there were a hundred like her at other major networks and newspapers in the country. I hope other reporters will learn from her work.

Comments

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Dan, I couldn't disagree with you more. Politicians in both parties with autism in their families have gone partisan at the expense of families for personal political gain. Other autism non profits around the country will not confront harm to families of kids with autism
for fear of losing that $5000 grant from their state agency or a group like autism speaks. I also know journalists who are autism parents who will say whatever it takes about autism to propel their carrear.
We will have to disagree Dan, but, thanks for trying to keep everyone honest and exposing hypocrisy.

Sorry, I need to correct a comment of mine concerning "negative correlation in a chinese study". While the study presents with a hint of political USA pressure,by mention of "studies" I did misinterpret and apologize. The connection was a positive one.
"Conclusion: high blood mercury level WAS associated with ADHD. Whether the relationship is causal requires further studies. (children with highest levels had almost a ten time higher risk of ADHD.
Although the AAFP and AAP removed thimerosal, and there IS MOUNTING evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies that thimerosal from vaccines CONTRIBUTE to neurodevelopmental disorders, SOME reviews did not support a genuine association between thimerosal and ADD or other major neurodevopmental disorders. Whether low-dose mercury exposure from thimerosal or other sources is etiologically related to ADHD remains controversial.
FURTHER studies are REQUIRED to determine whether mercury exposure and elevated blood mercury level are etiologically related to onset and persistence of ADHD and whether treatment to lower blood mercury levels is effective in children with ADHD." link in previous post

Fox commands the highest ratings in news and has advertisers other than pharma competing for access to their audience. This is why they are able to allow Allison to ask the tough questions. I am sure Fox executives are continuously being lobbied or persuaded not to run these stories. They let Blaxill, Olmsted and Imus discuss this on Fox business network also. Fox's audience is to the right politically. Whatever you think about right leaning politics, most of these people value personal freedoms. The tea party "Don't Tread On Me" flags are strong messages of distain for government intrusion into our personal lives(or bodies). We should be keeping our message centered around a philosophical vaccine exemption for all americans. A personal choice. One demand that is non negotiable. Great job Allison. We would like to see you get interviews on this issue with Dan Burton, Dave Weldon, Ron Paul and Carolyn (my office is down the road from Fox studios) Maloney
This would persuade millions of fox viewers to support vaccine choice. A green vaccine PR message will preclude vaccine choice for decades to come if that is the message. These same fox right wingers listened to Rush Limbaugh in 2010 (20,000,000 listeners weekly) tell HHS Sec. Sebelius to "Go to hell" on a mandated flu vaccine.

As amazing as it seems, the FDA still does not require mitochondrial toxicity testing even though it's known that drugs can be toxic to the mitochondria and can trigger a dysfunction. Some drugs have even been recalled b/c of this. Read this recent piece by Dr. Bruce Cohen a mitochondrial expert from the Cleveland Clinic

"The electrochemical gradient maintained by the IMM is vulnerable to many drugs that are weak organic acids at physiological pH, resulting in excessive free-radical generation and uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation. Many of these drugs can cause clinical injury in otherwise healthy people, but there are also examples where particular gene mutations may predispose to increased drug toxicity. The spectrum of drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction extends across many drug classes. It is hoped that preclinical pharmacogenetic and functional studies of mitochondrial toxicity, along with personalized genomic medicine, will improve both our understanding of mitochondrial drug toxicity and patient safety.

Three cheers for Alisyn Camerota! An excellent choice!! Thank you so much, Alisyn, for having the courage "to boldly go where no man has gone before". Where are all the other reporters and journalists on these issues?!?!?

I agree with Dan. I occasionally bring up politics while blogging but when it comes to other parents, their political beliefs play no role at all.
I also believe that if times get hard enough, people overlook their differences. The Progressive Era was time when all Americans agreed to clean up our nation regardless of political belief.
Did I just bring up politics?LOL.

Dr. Shoffner Most recently has his name signed on a letter along with other top mitochondrial eperts, he also was once upon a time at the Emory Clinic, and then later with Dr. Cohen at the Cleveland Clinic - always involved in mitochondrial research said my husband had

Acquired - Acquired- Acquired mitochondria cyopathy.

Now what does acquired mean?

I seems to mean a lot to the medical doctors at the University of Kentucky as they repeat after me - "Acquired!" "Yes, I said acquired!"

So it don't matter what that Ann said " Alvarez should had been the one saying, "Nobody knows how many other kids have that underlying mitochondrial .," AND WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHO'S VULNERABLE BEFORE WE VACCINATE" Because it is not there untill they do vaccinate!!!!!

And Dan I am impressed just how fair and wonderful you have been on this left/right political stuff! Thanks

Anne said "In my view, Alvarez should had been the one saying, "Nobody knows how many other kids have that underlying mitochondrial .," AND WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHO'S VULNERABLE BEFORE WE VACCINATE"

Would this really cover the issue? Are we believing that some rare underlying condition makes a child more vulnerable? This point bothers me, in that since the sixties we have been alerted to the affects of mercury on the mitochondria and yet in forty years we continue to deny the very real possibility that thimerosal itself could be the mitochondrial assault needed for setting up ASD. Any child with bad luck in timing or dose could be affected. JMO

@Less Talk More Action -- I don't think there are any left-wingers or right-wingers when it comes to stopping the autism epidemic. I wrote a post recently basically calling progressives a bunch of idiots for their failure to confront this issue. A Fox News reporter would not be getting an AOA Award if we had any bias based on anything but who's helping and who's not.

Jake, thank you for the comment. I agree that Manny Alvarez has given us very good reporting in the past. One that comes to mind is a story from 2006 where he raised serious concerns over thimerosal use in the flu shot and talked about the dangers of mercury. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,229156,00.html
"Mercury is an extremely dangerous neurotoxin, which can cause serious impairments of cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, and fine motor and visual spatial skills. While there is no debate over the dangers of mercury exposure, the question has been whether the amount of mercury present in vaccinations poses a health risk. The debate over the link between childhood immunizations and autism has grown increasingly contentious, as government studies have failed to establish a relationship between the developmental disorder and vaccinations."

"So the message is loud and clear: This new virus is very contagious. We don't have natural immunity, and if you have any risk factors - especially if you're pregnant - get the vaccine as soon as it is available."

There he failed to tell the public about the presence of mercury in most of the vaccines available and he told pregnant women to get it.

In his interview with Alisyn, he gives us the vague comment, "The funny thing is, no one is saying that vaccines really created autism," in the face of the Hannah Poing settlement.

Alvarez tries to be a middle-of-the-road advocate. Most of all, he's not alarmed over the fact that hundreds of thousands of children now have autism. He was born in 1957 and has an extensive medical background. He's seen the explosion in autism, yet when Alisyn specifically points out to him , "Nobody knows how many other kids have that underlying mitochondrial .," he changes the subject and talks about his son's regression, says "perhaps" we should test more carefully, and ends by saying "No one is saying that vaccines really created autism."

He could have used this forum to call for action on the autism crisis. The Hannah Poling settlement should have been talked about as startling evidence of a vaccine-autism connection. It should have called all the "no link" claims into question.

In my view, Alvarez should had been the one saying, "Nobody knows how many other kids have that underlying mitochondrial .," AND WE NEED TO FIND OUT WHO'S VULNERABLE BEFORE WE VACCINATE.

Alisyn Camerota has the passion for this issue that Alvarez didn't show.

Give credit to fox news for allowing her to cover this.
Fox, NBC and the other big networks are taking the big bucks advertising money from vaccine manufacturers. Many here at age of autism are proud left wingers who have reconsidered too much government intrusion over personal liberties. Green vaccines is a poor strategy. A philosophical exemption is the only demand we should be making. It is one non negotiable demand. If we could
Only get those losers at the NY Times, ABC and NBC to provide some balanced reporting. Allison would simply never have the opportunity to report on this if she had to get her hall pass from Nancy Snyderman.
Kudos to her for exposing the ignorance of fox "A Team" medical hack Mark Seigal.

Re: "I’ve had reporters tell me that they would like to do more on autism, but they weren’t allowed to."

As Maurine Meleck posted: "These reporters get their orders from high up with little choice on their part as how to report the news. It is the sad saga of journalism today."

News reporters have to comply with media administration, and media administration has to comply with the pharmaceutical industry propaganda in order to keep their drug advertising funding. Why is America the only country that permits pharmaceutical advertising in the media? Because Big Pharma buys whatever it wants, and they want the power of controlling the news media, as well as the ability to advertise the toxic drugs that kill a minimum of 100,000 people per year. With drug deaths reporting at an admittedly minimal 10%, the actual figure should be ONE MILLION people killed by prescription drugs.

Therefore it is amazing that Ms. Camerota has been permitted to even bring any attention to our side and we can only pray that Fox News will continue to permit this. Still, it takes a courageous person to present the vaccine and autism issues, and when she speaks I can hear the strength and determination in her voice and expressions. She has made the decision to "do the right thing" and she deserves a medal of honor. BRAVO!!!

I think Alisyn Camerota is awesome and I think it's really great that she is delivering this careful, dual-sided coverage on FOX. The NPR's, NYT, 'Frontlines', etc of this world, hailed forever as the news sources for smart thinkers, have let themselves down completely on this issue.

I agree with this post on Marc Siegel but I think Anne has it totally wrong on Manny Alvarez.

When he mentioned that more people could sue over vaccine damage, he was not saying so out of concern for the pharmaceutical companies - not at all - but as a motive behind the "fishy legal language" Alisyn Camerota was referring to. He was reinforcing what she was saying, not acting as an apologist for the pharmaceutical companies as this post insinuates.

And I do not think it is fair to blame him for not talking about testing for susceptibility as it would have been off-topic for the program, which was specifically about litigation.

That said, I think Dr. Alvarez is certainly one of the more balanced journalists reporting on this issue. We should be supporting people like him, not bashing him for not making comments that would have been beyond the scope of the particular program he was on, especially if he is also the father of a kid with autism.

I am pleasantly surprised by FOX presenting this coverage. I will continue to "watch" this evolve, however it's almost difficult to believe FOX isn't gravitating toward the side of big business. I so hope this "balance" is allowed to continue. I'm guessing it's time I take the parental controls off ,in place for a sweet but gullible husband:)

I am waiting for some serious coverage from some direction aimed at the facts surrounding thimerosal. The chinese study on ADD, exposed an interesting truth*. Many studies have concluded that almost half of mercury ,48% finds its' way into the mitochondria. When can we leave the genetics behind and focus on the environmental exposures as a cause of the underlying mitochondrial dysfunction .
*
In their study of methylmercury/ADD the Chinese were finding a negative connection, however then this fact and consequent opinion was discussed..
"Since methylmercury in fish is bound to selenium, proteins or cysteine, it's reactivity and toxicity might not be as high as mercury vapor or ethylmercury, to which humans are exposed through dental amalgam or vaccinations, respectively."

I never watched Fox News before but now I am a fan thanks to Alisyn. Wow, she is a really smart, tough investigative reporter who is not afraid to go after a controversial story. Alisyn asks all the questions the audience wants answered and does it with a smile. The interviewee has no idea what hit him. Watching her in action is amazing. She has all the facts and figures in her head and is so adept following up on the smallest detail that doesn't make sense.

I love when Alisyn says, "that is interesting because you are saying that now but last month you said x, y, z...." So many journalists are content to line up the ususal names and faces and do the same interview as everyone else. Alisyn goes 10 steps further and actually creates compelling television jouralism that serves the public interest.

Excellent summary, Anne. Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota is stupendous and I am so glad that she is receiving this honor. I hope her peers in the media also see what a difference she is making by bringing both sides to the table and showing facts - something most reporters seem to avoid these days, especially about vaccines and autism.

It was Very good
.
She interviewed Templin Grandin this past weekend, and Templin was saying that there had always been Aspergers among us(I am not sure I agree with that, what are Aspergers really like; are they people that have GI, and other health problems - then maybe so???); but Grandin thinks because of environmental insults the apsergers have turned into those with classical autism and PDD-NOS (which she was basically telling us she is - not aspergers!!!!))

Alysn got that vaccine word in there along side the words; "something in the environment"! Bless her heart!

Congratulations Ms. Camerota for this well deserved award and thanks Anne for writing it up. Reporting on vaccines and autism is always the same, whether it be on tv or in any other media. These reporters get their orders from high up with little choice on their part as how to report the news. It is the sad saga of journalism today. It isn't journalism.
Maurine

Right, Anne, and thanks for compiling this summary. For those who might have missed it, there's also Michelle Malkin. On the occasion of being strong-armed into a decision regarding the Hep B vaccine just hours after her child's birth, she referred to the medical providers as 'vaccine bullies', realizing later that at best, the shot intended to protect her newborn from a disease that's spread like an STD would only be 'effective' for a period of 5 years. In other words, until the child is a pre-schooler, which just seemed ridiculous to her. And to all of us. Here's a link.

"Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota has been amazing over the past several months. She’s done what reporters almost never do when it comes to the heated controversy over vaccines and autism—she’s given us BOTH SIDES."

At one time .. reporters were "expected" to give "both sides" to a controversial issue ..

however ..

today's reporters practice what is now recognized as "advocacy journalism" ..

which is described as presenting "selected facts in a compelling, well-researched manner .. while deliberately refusing to present credible opposition data or interviewing credible supporters with whom they personally disagree."

It is too bad practitioners of "advocacy journalism" far outnumber traditional "fair and balanced" journalists like Ms. Camerota .. but .. I have great respect and admiration for her having the personal courage to present "both sides" of the "vaccines cause autism" issue.

Much easier .. more rewarding .. while requiring far less courage .. to be an "advocacy journalist".....